Yahoo Store – How Much Money Will It Make Me ?
This exact question has come up in both my Private EBiz Forum and at my Personal EBiz Workshops, so I thought I’d share the answer with everybody. The fact is that Yahoo Store won’t make you any money at all. Yet, I still recommend Yahoo Store very strongly. How does that make sense?
It doesn’t, until you realize that the question doesn’t make sense. Yahoo Store isn’t going to make you any money because it’s not thier job to make you money. Same goes for eBay and Amazon. YOU are the one who needs to make the money.
Okay, so I’m nit-picking semantics here. I know that. But there is a basic misconception in that question, no matter how you phrase it, that needs to be corrected. What people are asking here is “Which online sales platform (Yahoo Store, eBay, or Amazon) am I going to earn the most money on”.
The real answer is that it’s not the platform you choose that determines how much money you make. It’s the COMBINATION of your Products and your Pricing that determines what Platform you sell on. Let’s look at those three Platforms and understand why this is.
eBay
eBay is bargain-land. Let’s not make any bones about that; we all know it. eBay is the web site that pawn shops use to decide how much they’re going to give you for stuff you pawn. When a Buyer shops on eBay, they’re looking for low prices. So, if you have a steady supply of Products that you can sell for really low Prices and still make a profit, eBay is a good Platform to use.
Amazon
Amazon is like putting your stuff in someone else’s store. Ever been in a grocery store when the Coca-Cola guy is there putting up Coke banners and promotional stuff? Notice how he looks around to see that nobody’s watching, then quietly tears down the Pepsi banners and puts his Coke stuff up? That’s called Merchandising. Amazon is not exactly like that, but it’s similar.
Amazon won’t come right out and say it, but they prefer sellers who have larger quantities of the same products to sell over and over again. If you have 500 pairs of black size 9 shoes, 500 pairs of black size 10 shoes (and so on) to sell, then Amazon likes you. Amazon is like a giant department store, and you get to rent shelf space there. If you can continuously re-stock that shelf space with lots of product for Amazon, you’re in thier “zone”. You’re who they really want as a Seller.
You can sell smaller quantities of products on Amazon, but when you have smaller quantities you pay more for them at wholesale, and you have to compete on price with people who have paid less for larger quantities. On Amazon, the lowest price usually wins. So, Amazon is best suited, in my opinion, for those who can buy in larger wholesale quantities and sell at competitive prices.
Yahoo Store
Yahoo Store is my Platform of choice. When I say “Yahoo Store”, I’m actually referring to any online store that you own and manage yourself, but Yahoo Store is by far my favorite way to build and run an online store.
Owning your own online store gives you the most flexibility to earn real money. When you’re selling on eBay or Amazon, it’s really easy for the Buyer to see all your competitions’ prices, and again, the lowest price usually wins. However, when you have a Buyer in your own online store, there are no competitors’ prices there. People actually have to go out and search online to find competing prices. This gives you that extra edge to grab somebody’s attention with your product presentation and the personality of your site, and that extra edge is often what makes the sale.
When you have your own online store, you can generally sell products for higher prices (and earn higher profits) than you can elsewhere.
So again, Yahoo Store, eBay or Amazon are not going to make you any money. That’s not thier job. Thier job is to provide you with a place (Platform) to sell from.
When you choose the right Platform based on your unique combination of Products and Pricing is when you make your money.
NOTE: My new Personal EBiz Success Workshops are open for Registration for June and July. Click Here to find out more!
